The WHO promise on Copox vaccines

World Health Organization (WHO) assured that will start supplying all developing countries with the covid-19 vaccine in the first half of next year. The promise is that the initial starting doses will be delivered in the first quarter of 2021.

This distribution will be done through the COVAX platform, created by the WHO with the participation of several international public and private organizations to give poor countries access to technologies capable of ending the pandemic, including treatments, diagnostics and vaccines. .

For the time being, COVAX has signed agreements guaranteeing 2,000 million vaccine doses available. The same will be distributed equally and simultaneously Between the countries.

he the goal is to cover at least 20% of the population of each country, which would reach the groups most at risk.

At a press conference with executives of pharmaceutical companies and representatives of several organizations participating in COVAX, members of the WHO said the signed agreements guarantee “some of the vaccines from the first wave of production”.

A vaccine developed by Pfizer / BioNTech authorized for emergency use in the United States, was added this Friday by the biotechnology company Moderna. The European Medicines Agency, the European Union body that examines the cases of the two, is expected to announce its decision before the end of the year.

Of the 2 billion vaccines, WHO said 1.3 billion doses would be funded through donations and through participation of high and middle income countries in COVAX.

Among the new purchase agreements announced, stand out those signed by COVAX with the pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca for 170 million doses and with Johnson & Johnson for 500 million doses of the vaccine developed by its specialized subsidiary Janssen Pharmaceutical.

The interest of this last vaccine candidate, which is being tested in two clinical trials in phase 3 and nearing completion, is that it is being studied in a single dose.

The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines require two doses, which means the 2 billion doses secured so far for the WHO will be used to immunize 1 billion people.